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Maccast Loop – Episode 048
The Maccast Loop is your opportunity to become a part of the Maccast. Each week the hottest topics and issues from the Maccast will be discussed and you will have the opportunity to give your feedback LIVE. Join host Adam Christianson and producer Victor Cajiao (Typical Mac User Podcast) as you become part of the show. Share your thoughts, opinions, tips, tricks, and knowledge of all things Macintosh. The Maccast Loop completes the circuit, closes the loop, and brings the Maccast community even closer.

Links:
Apple .Mac
Rapidweaver, Real Mac Software
Sandvox, Karelia Software
GoDaddy, web hosting
WordPress.com
WordPress.org

Thanks to my audio engineer and producer, Victor Cajiao (Typical Mac User Podcast [iTunes]) and to all the listeners and participants who make this show possible.

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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 223. iPhone 2.0 analysis triggers speculation. iPhone 3G Chipset revealed? Apple releases Pro applications update. Apple beefs up new legal team. Company offers OS X compatible clones. Apple confirms graphics glitches in notebooks. US Apple shipment rise, while PCs fall. Removing Files from Old TimeMachine Backups. Review: Audioengine W1. Some other ways to use Windows browsers on a Mac. Use your Mac as a WiFi hotspot. Too many Airports can be confusing. My thoughts on FileVault. Enable menu bar item to screenlock your Mac. How can I use Apple TV with Standard def TV?

Special thanks to our sponsors:

Circus Ponies – Free 30-day Trial of Notebook
Smile on My Mac, check out Textexpander

New music, Rockin’ Our Sales by Bruce ServicePack and the Vista [video]

Get your patchouli stink outta my store. — High Fidelity (2000)

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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 222. TV hits iTunes in Germany. New TV Ads for iPhone and Macs. Apple Updates iTunes 7.6.2, QuickTime 7.4.5 and Front Row 2.1.3. Apple gets #1 music retailer spot in the US. Uncle Walt says 3G iPhone in 60 Days. Redesigns for future Mac notebooks? AirPort Disk Time Machine support off again? FinalCut Server now shipping. iPhone Developers hit with Pink Screen O’ Death (PSOD). EFI firmware updates. Follow-up on CD read errors and labels. Accessing non-Mac supported sites. Making System fonts bigger. Automatically disconnecting from servers. Remotely access a PC from your Mac. Moving Outlook to Mac. Using user accounts and sudo. Hate cable clutter? So does Jack.

New music, Wakeup by Once Just

Special Thanks to our Sponsors:

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I never did one thing right in my life, you know that? Not one. That takes skill. — The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996)

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Maccast Loop – Episode 046
In this episode we talk about recent issues with using TimeMachine, AirDisks, and Time Capsule. Specifically, we discuss issues with TimeMachine disks filling up and what steps you can take to troubleshoot this common problem. We go over how TimeMachine fits into an overall methodology for performing backups and look at other tools that help round out your entire backup strategy. In this show we also take a look at using your Mac for business, discuss cool Mac business apps, and talk about using your Mac for banking and preparing your taxes.

Links:
WhatSize, from id-design, inc.
Disk Inventory X, by Tjark Derlien
GrandPerspective
Super Duper, from Shirt Pocket
Carbon Copy Cloner, from Bombich
iBiz and iBank, from Igg Software
Cha-Ching, from Midnight Apps
Billings 2, from Marketcircle
Billable, from ClickableBliss
Freshbooks, from 2ndSite Inc.
Receipt Wallet, from GGT Enterprises
LightSpeed, Xsilva
Crywolf Computers
Checkout, MYOB

Thanks to my audio engineer and producer, Victor Cajiao (Typical Mac User Podcast [iTunes]) and to all the listeners and participants who make this show possible.

I am not sure how long this has been around in Firefox, but at least in the latest version of Firefox 3 beta for Mac I stumbled cross this trick. This morning while working on other things I accidentally dropped a folder from the Finder into a Firefox window I had in the background. Imagine my surprise when I saw what you see in the image above. Firefox displayed the contents of the folder in a file browser like structure. I could navigate up and down the directory tree and there was even an option to turn on and off viewing of invisible files. I did notice that it won’t allow you to navigate to the root of your hard drive, but files that can be viewed normally in a browser (like image files or Quicktime movies) will show up right inside Firefox. They have also done a very nice job with the user interface. It sorta reminds me of .Mac.

Now normally this shouldn’t be surprising considering that many browsers can view file systems on remote servers (if the feature is turned on and allowed in the server configuration), but this works locally. I also know that Internet Explorer on Windows has been able to do this trick for years, but this is on a Mac. The trick also does not work in Safari, at least not in the current version of Safari running under OS 10.5.2.

One of the goals of good design is to properly position graphic elements in a harmonious way. This includes good video design, especially when compositing titles, images and other video clips together. Both Final Cut Pro and Motion make it easy to reposition, rotate, crop and distort video clips and images in their respective Canvases. In Final Cut Pro the Image and Wireframe mode must be selected from the View pop-up menu in the Canvas (see figure 1). This tip focuses on moving the clip around.

Figure 1:
Selecting Image & Wireframe from the View pop-up Menu.

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A podcast about all things Macintosh. For Mac geeks, by Mac geeks. Show 221. Case of the missing iPhones. Apple sales up in down market. Safari 3.1 and Webkit rocked the ACID test. Macbook Air hacked. Apple releases v2 of iPhone SDK. Apple TV Update 2.0.1. Some follow-up on music sharing. Google map hack for older iPods. CDs with labels are unreliable. Automator and iCal, the perfect auto scheduling pair. Mac log file maintenance. My experience hacking the AppleTV. My thoughts on Apple refurbished products

Special thanks to our sponsors:

Circus Ponies – Free 30-day Trial of Notebook

New music, Routine and Dollar Signs by Goodnight Sunrise

These humans are dangerous, don’t you understand that? They think that they’re as good as we are!” — Planet of the Apes (1974)

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About a month or so ago I was contacted by the local NBC affiliate here in San Diego to get my thoughts on a story they were working on based on a report they had received from their Washington DC office. The story was about a woman that someone from the DC station knew who’s 2nd gen iPod Nano exploded and caught fire while charging. The basic spin they wanted on the story was that iPods were potentially unsafe and could catch fire. Trouble is, neither I nor any other expert they could track down would play along. In the end they ended up doing a broader piece on dangers of lithium ion batteries. Maybe not 100% accurate, but there have been some recalls and (despite the sensational promos and story headline) the story did a fairly decent job explaining that in normal use these batteries are relatively safe and it’s only when the batteries are improperly handled that there could be some issues. I was interviewed on camera for over 20 minutes and ended up with just a quick sound byte at about 3:11 in. You can see the whole segment in the Quicktime video above (click the image to play). They did get a nice shot of the modded Apple logo on my G4 iBook.

Via a Twitter from Scoble

It looks like Google has darkened it’s homepage in honor of Earth Hour. “On Saturday, March 29, 2008, Earth Hour invites people around the world to turn off their lights for one hour – from 8:00pm to 9:00pm in their local time zone.”

The Earth Hour event was created by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in 2007 and was designed to raise awareness and support for fighting the effects of global climate change. I personally was not aware of the event until the Twitter from Scoble and I think it’s great to see Google supporting the cause. I personally will be sitting in the dark tonight from 8:00 to 9:00PM. Care to join me?

Good news. GoDaddy recently updated some equipment and the Maccast server and it’s OS were the recipients of some tweaks. At the very least things should perform a little snappier around here. Thanks GoDaddy!